Legitimacy of an army of neotenous amphibians

Question

In my world, there exists a race of amphibians we'll call "phrogs". Phrogs were a relatively peaceful race, who evolved a kind of telepathy to allow them to communicate underwater, which got increasingly sophisticated until they developed full blown dream sharing. They were spirited from their home planet and genetically engineered to be soldiers. These new world phrogs fall into two categories: Suns, the footsoldiers of the big bads cosmic empire, and the Moons, a smaller caste of dream raiders, who's function ranges from gathering intel to essentially DDOSing a victim's mind. I'm focused on the Suns for this question.

Like amphibians/salamanders on Earth, phrogs on their homeworld undergo a metamorphosis, where they transition from being fully aquatic to being amphibious, surviving on land and in water. Only... they did on their homeworld. As a means of control, their captors have bred away the gland which produces a hormone that allows them to metamorphosise. If left untreated, a phrog soldier, whilst otherwise growing to be fully sized, will remain wholly aquatic its entire life, and when on land, must wear an elaborate "wetsuit" in order to breathe.

My worry here is this; we know that axolotls in the real world, who experience this same kind of neoteny, are relatively weaklimbed compared to a metamorphosised salamander. While this all sounds cool conceptually, what advantage has an aquatic animal got over a terrestrial one in combat on land? If any?

Answer 1

Their major combat advantage is their relative weakness. They realize that they are physically no match for the enemy combatants so they dedicate themselves to total mastery of their power armor, tactical systems, drones and weapons. They realize that during land based combat, they are quite literally a fish out of water, so they prepare for that inevitable conflict from the day they are spawned.

Now Add their telepathy to the mix and their real advantage becomes apparent. When you are fighting one soldier from any non-telepathic race, they have to divide their one brain among various priorities. They can attack or defend. They can aim their rifle or control their drones. Fighting one psychic-nominal can be difficult, but it is never more than a one on one fight.

In face to face combat with a single Sun phrog, you are not facing a single warrior but a nest of linked consciousnesses. Each warrior is a multi-modal battle system, embracing combat simultaneously on all levels. One brain on the rifle, another on each drone, a dedicated brain for power management, personal shields and defense. It is truly terrifying to see an angry phrog taking precision, sniper-level shots from shoulder cannons, a head mounted turret and rifles in each hand, all while controlling a dozen drones above in a ballet of death.

Answer 2

Most settlements are built around water access.

Water is important to any industrialized society. Most settlements are built near the coast or rivers and so an aquatic race is going to be very focused and excellent at water based raids.

They can't live on land.

This is a key advantage for the empire. Once they kill everyone in their rivals then their soldiers have no incentive to try to take the valuable land. Real citizens can settle in the empty cities and the phrogs can live in the water.

Some early experiments with amphibious versions led to their land being colonized and used by their shock troopers.

Answer 3

All Major Logistics are conducted on the Sea, All Major power projection is done from the Sea

Why is the United States the Global Super-power?

2 reasons:

• Biggest Blue water navy (in terms of Tonnage - China's fleet of canoes doesn't count).
• Most Aircraft Carriers.

That means that when things are going bad, the US can park a whole bunch of US Military power within striking distance of anywhere in international waters.

So - an Entity that can control the Sea has a number of significant advantages in Combat - and from the Sea/Rivers - you can strike a scary amount of the major industrial centres.

Essentially you have created the SBS or Navy Seals, but on Steroids - a type of... Phrogman.

But in seriousness - being a totally aquatic soldier and being able to strike from water and escape to water is such a strategic advantage.

Answer 4

Self-repair.

The have as the OP states, two phases in their life-cycle, and are frozen in their child form (albeit adult-sized).

The child phrog, all the way from phadpole to adult sized with limbs has the remarkable feature of the ability to regenerate limbs, heal major wounds and recover from life-threatening injuries. There are even rumors amongst their enemies that you can cut one's head off, and they'll grow a new one. They always come back and fight again.

The adult state of the phrogs is strong, it's resilient and able to cope with varying environments. It is however no longer possible for the adults to regenerate as they once did, so any injuries are life-threatening, crippling or deadly. Dead soldiers can't fight again, ever.

(As a side-note, the pre-adult phase is asexual, has no drives in that area, so can't be distracted in battle by a handsome webbed foot or slimy elbow)